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'Gods and Generals' ... and an angry Mayor Dow
Mobile Register ^ | 10/13/03 | Jim Van Anglen

Posted on 10/13/2003 7:07:18 AM PDT by stainlessbanner

When George Ewert , director of the Museum of Mobile, wrote a stinging movie review of the Civil War film "Gods and Generals," he likely did not expect an equally harsh critique from Mayor Mike Dow .

Ewert's review, "Whitewashing the Confederacy (SPLC link)," was not kind to the Ted Turner film.

"'Gods and Generals' is part of a growing movement that seeks to rewrite the history of the American South, downplaying slavery and the economic system that it sustained. In museums, schools and city council chambers, white neo-Confederates are hard at work in an effort to have popular memory trump historical accuracy," the city employee wrote.

And this: "It is cloying and melo dramatic, and its still characters give an endless series of ponderous, stilted speeches about God, man and war."

In turn, Dow was not kind to Ewert, reprimanding the city employee in a Friday letter. The mayor called Ewert's review unnecessarily strongly worded, inflammatory and counterproductive.

"Why, in your very public position with all the local 'Southern Heritage' controversy that city leaders have had to manage and after several years of a hard-fought political calming of this issue, would you inject yourself so strongly and carelessly into this topic in this manner?" the mayor wrote.

"I need for you to use your better judgment and please cease and desist publishing potentially inflammatory articles of this nature without your board chairman's or my awareness and approval. Leave that to others who have less to do."

The city, particularly Dow, has come under fire in the past from Southern heritage groups claiming unfair treatment.

Ewert's review was printed in the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Report. The Montgomery-based organization's Intelligence Project monitors hate groups and extremist activities.

At the end of the movie review, there is a line that notes Ewert's position with the city.

Mobile City Council President Reggie Copeland also scolded Ewert, saying at last week's council meeting that he "would accept nothing less than a public apology. ... I am very displeased with that gentleman, and I want some action taken."

Copeland made the comments after hearing about the review but before reading it. He later told the Mobile Register that the review was "not as strong as I thought it would have been. ... I just wish he would have kept his mouth shut."

Ewert, contacted last week, declined comment except to say that he would be preparing a statement for Dow. In a letter to Dow dated Oct. 9 -- one day before Dow's letter -- Ewert said the review was written in his capacity as a historian and private individual.

"I regret that anyone may have taken my comments in a 'personal' matter," Ewert wrote. "My intent was not to offend but to offer a legitimate criticism and context for the movie in question, a privilege that should by rights be open to anyone. If, again, there were those who were offended by the movie review, I offer my apologies."

Don't shoot ...:

Area veterinarian Ben George , a Confederate Battle Flag and Confederate-heritage advocate, praised Dow for his response to the review. But George said Ewert did not apologize and should resign or be fired.

"He (Ewert) shot somebody; he said he's going to shoot somebody again," George said.

George in the past has made himself something of a thorn in Dow's side, organizing demonstrations in front of Dow's house, plastering posters criticizing the mayor during the last city election and using other tactics to push his Confederate heritage agenda.

George complained to Dow after reading Ewert's article. "My staff and I have had to deal with an unnecessary and increased fallout as a result of your article," Dow stated in his letter to Ewert.

George compared the situation to the firing of a Mobile police officer, accused of using the n-word and expressing a lack of interest in helping evacuate public housing residents in case of flooding.

Ewert, like the police officer, George said, has proven himself intolerant toward part of Mobile's population, namely Confederate heritage proponents like himself.

George said he and several others planned to speak at Tuesday's City Council meeting about Ewert's comments, along with concerns that Dow has not kept his word on settling previous disputes. But, he said, the speakers may reconsider.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; US: Alabama
KEYWORDS: alabama; dixie; generals; gods; godsandgenerals; moviereview; museum; splc
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To: Ditto
"...but don't rewrite history. It makes you look foolish..."

Link to Emancipation Proclamation ---Emancipation Proclamation

Quote from below Emancipation Proclamation ---"On Jan. 1, 1863, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln declared free all slaves residing in territory in rebellion against the federal government. This Emancipation Proclamation actually freed few people. It did not apply to slaves in border states fighting on the Union side; nor did it affect slaves in southern areas already under Union control. Naturally, the states in rebellion did not act on Lincoln's order."

81 posted on 10/13/2003 11:09:11 AM PDT by gatex
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To: colorado tanker
It did... it's supposed to be in the director's cut.
82 posted on 10/13/2003 11:09:40 AM PDT by carton253 (All I need to know about Islam I learned on 9/11/2001)
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To: x
I should rephrase and say perhaps Gods and Generals tried to show why each side thought themselves to be on God's side.

I have not seen the movie as of yet, and cannot offer an "educated" opinion. However, I have read some reviews by people I trust that thought very highly of the movie, and the usual "liberal" suspects all hated it. Apart from the attempt by some to suggest that slavery had little to do with the war ( a silly proposal), and those on the other end of the spectrum who believed it ONLY about slavery (also a simplistic view), there is, in my opinion, resistance by liberals to have the South portrayed in any fashion other than shoe-less racist uneducated hicks who lynch for sport. They cannot tolerate a southern General who was educated, read a Bible, and spoke with eloquence.
83 posted on 10/13/2003 11:13:05 AM PDT by Moby Grape
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To: PaulJ
So? Next time I will provide you with a bibliography. Still it does not invalidate the material. Get over it.
84 posted on 10/13/2003 11:13:21 AM PDT by Lee Heggy ("the basic delusion that men may be governed and yet be free."H L Menken)
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To: nathanbedford
Thought you might be interested in it.
85 posted on 10/13/2003 11:13:47 AM PDT by carton253 (All I need to know about Islam I learned on 9/11/2001)
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To: carton253
In his review, Ewert takes the wrong perspective for the movie. He critiques issues that the movie did not even address and the issues he tries to tackle are baseless claims.

I appreciate your informative posts and comments. Keep it up!

86 posted on 10/13/2003 11:15:10 AM PDT by stainlessbanner
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To: Non-Sequitur
"Slavery started in North America in Florida, grew in Virginia"

The Union, & slavery, existed before there was such a thing as the Confederacy.

"I can hardly sum it up better than Alexander Stephens, vice president of the confederacy, did: "

And, of course, Stephens argument was rejected by the Confederacy. All of those presidents he spoke of were part of the Union. The Confederacy did not exist when they were elected. But, of course; you knew that.

I cannot join you in pretending to not know the difference between a point on a compass, and the Confederacy. Really, why don't you bring Bolivia into this? They are from the south too.

"So it would appear that it was the Federal Government of the South, not the North, who nurtured..."

Because of an argument rejected by the Confederacy?!!

And now you alledge that the South attempted to seceed from itself. Quite the gymnast. The "South" is the Confederacy, the south is a point on a compass.

87 posted on 10/13/2003 11:17:17 AM PDT by laotzu
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To: PaulJ
"Actually, you had responded to my question..."

I know. Clear enough now?

88 posted on 10/13/2003 11:22:33 AM PDT by laotzu
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To: PaulJ
"I don't know why you're getting mad at me. I only asked you to clarify your statement, which you have now made clear you can't".


...You are right Paul, slavery was the only "states rights" the south was fighting to defend. There is and was no justification for slavery.
...Folks may nit pick about who introduced slavery and who held on to it the longest and that doesn't change the fact that the civil war was about slavery- the most horrendous evil ever introduced to this nation until 1973.
89 posted on 10/13/2003 11:22:42 AM PDT by Graybeard58
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To: Ditto
"Ah.... more word games. By the Union do you mean..."

I mean the Union. The United States.
(that would be all states prior to the Confederacy being formed)

How many meanings do you think there are?

90 posted on 10/13/2003 11:29:57 AM PDT by laotzu
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To: Graybeard58
Okay, I'll bite. What happened in 1973?
91 posted on 10/13/2003 11:30:43 AM PDT by PaulJ
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To: PaulJ
'72 or '73, I'm not real good with dates but I was referring to Roe Vs Wade
92 posted on 10/13/2003 11:39:44 AM PDT by Graybeard58
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To: Question_Assumptions
"Lincoln's decision to exclude the North from the emancipation proclaimation can be explained in any number of ways..."

No doubt.

For whatever reasons one may choose to argue; none of them alter the fact that the Union was excluded from the Emanipation Proclaimation.

"You make it sound as if the North kept its slaves into the 1950s."

Do I really? Where?

"I think there is mis-representation on both sides."

I would agree. However, because 'they were doing it too' is hardly a reason to not question misrepresentation.

Why, do you think, is such a mis-representation(United States) called for?

93 posted on 10/13/2003 11:44:30 AM PDT by laotzu
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To: carton253
....but how the war effected the soldiers that fought it.

Bingo! Too bad so many here do not want to acknowledge that fact.

94 posted on 10/13/2003 11:45:06 AM PDT by ladtx ( "Remember your regiment and follow your officers." Captain Charles May, 2d Dragoons, 9 May 1846)
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To: ladtx
And even then, the movie really only focuses on two soldiers... Jackson and Chamberlain.
95 posted on 10/13/2003 11:50:19 AM PDT by carton253 (All I need to know about Islam I learned on 9/11/2001)
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To: laotzu
The Confederacy did not exist when they were elected. But, of course; you knew that.

And when the confederacy was proclaimed it went out of it's way to include in its constitution protection of the institution of slavery and the very slave trade that you profess to condemn. But, of course; you knew that, too.

96 posted on 10/13/2003 12:03:33 PM PDT by Non-Sequitur
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To: gatex
Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri, and Delaware.

Try again. Missouri and Maryland ended slavery by January 1865. Kentucky and Deleware lost their slaves in December 1865, the same time that the parts of the southern states not covered by the Emancipation Proclamation did.

Under what authority could Lincoln have ordered the freeing of slaves in the North?

97 posted on 10/13/2003 12:07:44 PM PDT by Non-Sequitur
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To: laotzu
?For whatever reasons one may choose to argue; none of them alter the fact that the Union was excluded from the Emanipation Proclaimation

That's true. Lincoln laid the groundwork for the continuation of slavery after the war, though he did it because he believed it necessary to prevent widespread murder and crime in the south. In any case, Thaddeus Stevens saw to it that Americans of African heritage were freed by federal law despite Lincoln's comparatively sophisticated gambit. Sadly though, Thaddeus died before he could rule the south long enough with an iron fist to prevent the savage genocide of Americans of African heritage that followed his death.

98 posted on 10/13/2003 12:09:10 PM PDT by Held_to_Ransom
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To: Sunshine Sister; Gunslingr3
It's not quite that simple an issue here.

This guy is an employee of a city that has just had a terrible time dealing with "Southern heritage" issues. He wrote an article over his title as a city employee without the permission of his boss, reigniting the very issues that the city had finally managed to put a lid on.

He certainly is free to say anything he wants, but not to use his city title to give some sort of imprimatur to his speech. And by doing that without permission, he has put himself in a bit of a jam from an employment standpoint.

"Free speech" doesn't mean "speech without consequences", especially when you do something without permission that harms your employer.

99 posted on 10/13/2003 12:16:30 PM PDT by AnAmericanMother (. . . Nihil sub sole novum. . .)
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To: Held_to_Ransom
What genocide would that be and when did it happen?
100 posted on 10/13/2003 12:17:14 PM PDT by carton253 (All I need to know about Islam I learned on 9/11/2001)
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